Related Experiment Videos
Formant priority channel selection for an "n-of-m" sound processing strategy for cochlear implants
Juliana N Saba1, Hussnain Ali1, John H L Hansen1
1Cochlear Implant Processing Laboratory-Center for Robust Speech Systems, University of Texas at Dallas, Richardson, 800 West Campbell Road, Richardson, Texas 75080, USA.
The Journal of the Acoustical Society of America
|January 3, 2019
Summary
New cochlear implant (CI) strategies, VFACE and FACE, aim to improve speech understanding in noise. VFACE showed significant gains in babble noise, suggesting potential for enhanced CI sound processing.
Area of Science:
- Audiology
- Biomedical Engineering
- Speech Processing
Background:
- The Advanced Combination Encoder (ACE) strategy is standard in Cochlear Corporation cochlear implants (CIs).
- ACE selects frequency channels based on spectral energy, potentially neglecting speech cues in low SNR environments.
- Improving speech segregation in noisy conditions is crucial for CI users.
Purpose of the Study:
- To develop and evaluate novel sound processing strategies for cochlear implants.
- To enhance speech intelligibility in noise by explicitly encoding formant frequencies.
- To compare the performance of new strategies (FACE, VFACE) against the standard ACE strategy.
Main Methods:
- Developed two new strategies: Formant-ACE (FACE) and voiced-activated-formant-ACE (VFACE).
- Both strategies incorporate direct formant estimation algorithms into the ACE framework.
- Speech intelligibility was tested in eight CI users across 11 acoustic conditions (varying SNR, noise, and reverberation).
Main Results:
- VFACE demonstrated significant speech intelligibility improvements over ACE in 5 dB babble noise.
- FACE and VFACE performance was comparable to ACE in other tested acoustic conditions.
- FACE and VFACE strategies increased the selection of channels associated with the second formant frequency.
Conclusions:
- VFACE shows promise as a supplementary channel selection technique for ACE in specific noisy environments.
- FACE and VFACE represent potential advancements for cochlear implant sound processing.
- Further research may explore optimizing these strategies for diverse listening conditions.